Read our news about the 2003 fundraising activities of William's Fund:

• Research Report from Dr Chris Mitchell, John Radcliffe Hospital, September 2003
• Bolsover Cruise Club
• Jacqui Davis
• Beehive and Honeycombe Nursery
• Booth Lockett Makin
• Ros Kendrick
• Encana
• Sue and Helen Cox
• Gerrards Cross Golf Club
• Country Bunches
• Jane Ferris
• Kingscote School
• W R Beck and Dean & Co
• Fulmer Lights
• Cannons Health Club
• Angels Gather Here
• "blue" Men's shop - November 2003
• Mike Snelling's Half Marathon 2 November 2003
• Jo Fowle's Christmas Shopping - November 2003
• Richard Craig's Tash for Cash - November 2003
• Charlie's Half Marathon -Octoberr 2003
• Elaine Stacey's sponsored hike - October 2003
• Ocean Challenge 2003 - September 2003
• Nordicon Lighting closing down - September 2003
• Brazilian BBQ - September 2003
• Kevin Farran climbs Mount Fuji - July 2003
• Peter Dodd's London to Oxford bike ride - July 2003
• Keven Farran training at Gerrards Cross station - 3 July 2003
• Tony Westcott and Steve Willey's skydive - June 2003

Bolsover Cruise Club, Chesterfied in Derbyshire - raised £75, collected in place of sending cards to each other, they did however get their business cards overprinted from us!

Jacqui Davis- £100, ashamed to admit this came from their swear box!! Jacqui is the daughter of William's Godmother.

Beehive and Honeycomb Nursery - £125

Booth Lockett Makin Ltd of Gerrards Cross- £500, raised by not sending Christmas cards,

Ros Kendrick - £500, yet another generous donation from Ros, accompanied by offers of help too, Ros went into hospital on 22nd Dec for an op to her hand, she said she'd do anything to get out of cooking the Christmas lunch!

Encana - £3,000

Sue & Helen Cox - £19.70, Sue & Helen yet again held their 'dress up or pay up' session at the end of the Trampolining lessons!

Gerrards Cross Golf Club LX - £1,505

This years Caesar Mike Greaves chose William’s Fund as his charity for their annual fundraising. I was treated to a lovely lunch at which I spoke about the charity, the research ,and of course William! The LX group were extremely hospitable and very generous, many thanks to you all.

Country Bunches - Our local florist (not just a florist, they make amazing arrangements!) held a raffle the night of the Gerrards Cross Christmas shopping night with proceeds to William’s Fund (of course!) Many thanks to Karen,Wendy and all the girls.

Jane Ferris Jane has been Carol Singing at Gerrards Cross station again!! This year Jane managed to get an announcement made on the train as it approached the station, so unwitting travellers had time to get their wallets out!! Jane takes family and friends on this annual trip wearing William's Fund T shirts over their winter coats!! Many thanks to singers, contributors and the stationmaster!

Kingscote School - Once again Kingscote School (William's School) held their collection after the Nativity play to benefit William's Fund. We are particularly touched by this as William went to the Kingscote Nativity 2 days before he died in 2000 and despite being weak he was determined to see his brother and classmates in the play and held onto his angel costume throughout. William helped Mrs Tunstall hand out the gifts to the teachers, the last of which he gave to me. The plant lives on and flowers gloriously twice a year! We thank all the very generous parents for their contributions which made a fantastic £693. Thank you Kingscote.

W R Beck and Dean & Co - Also on the local Christmas shopping nights we were supported by WR Beck in Gerrards Cross and their partners Dean & Co. in Chalfont St Peter - they raised a total of £96. Thank you so much for this. We have been so thrilled by the local support over this period.

Cannons Health Club

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Cannons Health Club in Stoke Poges held their childrens Christmas party for William's Fund, organised by Roxanne (second from left at the back of left hand photo).

Angels Gather Here - Chris Myers has raised £61.46 by opening her house (and not for the first time) for 'Angels Gather Here', a small Christmas Fair with donations to William's Fund on the door. (2nd Dec 2003). Thanks Chris for your continued support!

"blue" Men's shop helps William's Fund

On Friday 20th November 2003 Lee Goward held a launch party for the opening of his new men's clothing shop 'blue'in Packhorse Road, Gerrards Cross. Guests were invited to a champagne launch at the shop to view the very impressive layout and great men's clothes, they also have men's gifts, cufflinks, toiletries etc. Lee wanted to fill the gap in the local market for designer wear for men; he said there was already enough for women!!

Later the guests were invited to the launch party held at the Greyhound Inn in Chalfont St Peter. Wine, great food and live music awaited the guests and Lee made a short speech to thank everyone. A raffle was held in aid of William's Fund which raised a staggering £1,180!

On leaving we were all given a 'goodie bag' with beautiful samples of 'blue' merchandise!

Thank you to Lee, his business partners David and Sam Matthews, The Greyhound Inn and of course all the guests who supported William's Fund in the extremely sophisticated raffle!

We wish you every success with blue.

Mike's Half Marathon in aid of William's Fund

Mike Snelling ran the Stevenage Half Marathon on 2nd November, he raised £605 + Gift Aid.

Well done Mike and Thank you!

Christmas Shopping in Aid of Williams Fund

On 19th November Jo Fowle hosted a Christmas shopping event at her beautiful Farm House, lots of ladies dropped in for a sumptuous feast of nibbles and a glorious array of stalls. All the stall holders donated 10% of their takings to William's Fund as well as donating a prize for the raffle. The location was so attractive, it really set the scene for Christmas

(click images to see larger versions)

Allegra Green - decorative wreaths, Christmas decorations, silk flower displays...you name it Rosalind has got it!!	Chununga Tree - Elaine captures your special moments in silver jewellry, I wasn't sure I wanted Elaine to be there as I have had some lovely pieces made by Elaine and I wanted to keep her all to myself!!
Paula Barlow with Jo Fowle the hostess was manning Phoenix Trading cards and wrapping	The Pampered Chef aka Melanie Weston, produced some tantalising titbits from the kitchen as she demonstrated the kitchen gadgets
Our resident Virgin was Jan Wait with Suriyati showing her Virgin Vie products complete with heavenly scents.	Usborne Books did very well for Karin Swift - all those presents under the tree may just be a few books!

Handmade Chocolates by Julie Devonald kept us all holding our tummies in!
Sue Tippin was on hand to show her Creative Memories a fab way to preserve your family photos.

Thank you to Jo for organising and hosting the event and to all her family who were on hand to man the car park, greet at the door, look after the babies and anything else which needed doing! Jo made £283.82 for William's Fund

Thanks to everyone who came and all the traders for their support.

Richard Craig's Tash for Cash Nov 2003

Richard Craig had a "Tash for Cash" night recently and shaved off his moustache. He invited friends to watch the big event and raised £410 for William's Fund. Thanks Richard.

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Charlie's Sponsored Half Marathon

Charlie (one of William's oncology nurses) ran the Stroud Half marathon in 2 hours 16 minutes and really enjoyed it (apart from the uphill bits!). She ran with her brother Toby, sister-in-law and another friend and her brother very kindly ran all the way round with her. The photos show Charlie just before the finish with Toby in the funny hat and of Charlie with her medal and her daughters.

Charlie carried a little photo of William around with her to help her through the difficult bits and you can see her holding it in the photo where she is nearly at the finish.

Note from Johanna - Charlie was one of William's oncology nurses on ward 4B at Oxford. On the night William started his chemotherapy Charlie was on night duty looking after us. William loved her and it was this night that Lucinda decided to enter the world! So having settled William (and I ) for the night Charlie was then faced with the prospect of a baby being born on the chemo ward....she did her best to persuade me to go to the labour ward but I didn't want to leave Wills, eventually Wills slept and Peter arrived so we dashed through the corridors on a very wonky wheelchair opening all the fire doors on the way, Charlie was fantastic keeping me 'breathing' all the way, we arrived at the labour ward in a mad dash and Lucinda was born 20 mins later! Charlie went straight back to the ward to look after Wills and then after a long night on duty still came to see us in the morning to meet Lucinda!!
Charlie continued to look after William on his many visits to the ward, and it means a lot to us that she has done this run, especially with the photo to keep her going! Well done Charlie!

Elaine's Sponsored Hike

Ocean Challenge 2003

Jim Shekhdar has left Bluff in New Zealand on his incredible voyage to Cape Town in South Africa via Cape Horn...in a rowing boat, alone and unaided! The journey will be over 8,000 nautical miles and will take approx. 9 months. Jim is a great supporter of William's Fund and we would like to wish Jim Good Luck and Great Courage for this amazing trip.You can follow Jims progress on www.oc2003.com. William's watching over you Jim!

Nordicon Lighting

Brazilian BBQ

Fantastic! We had such a brilliant day, the weather was incredible for September (thanks Wills!) Stuart started cooking early morning with all his able helpers, the aroma from the BBQ was exquisite…and later we found the food was too!

Guests arrived to Brazilian dancers in full costume, glorious sunshine and some wonderful activities…table football, human table football, Trampolining, swimming, bouncy castle, tombola….. our very special 'pull the ticket off the scarecrow', face painting and tuck shop and of course the supervised crèche for the little ones! Wow..those dancers don't wear very much do they?!

The day ran smoothly into the raffle and auction.We were truly amazed at the generosity of those bidding.We did have some fantastic items many of which are not generally available to the public. Our Auctioneer Robert Dean did an incredible job and kept everyone well informed and on their toes….with a resulting total of……we'll tell you later!!!!

Just teasing! We have done some preliminary calculations and the total raised (including auction bids still to be collected) was a staggering… £15,000 which will be increased by Gift Aid to the approx. value of £4,000 taking the grand total to £19,000

What can we say? A huge Thank you to everyone involved and especially to the hosts Suriyati and Stuart Graham.

Below are some images of the day. (Sept 2003)

The Brazilian Dancers see larger image		Face Painting see larger image
Some of the guests enjoying themselves see larger image	The hosts, Stuart and Suriyati Graham see larger image		The auctioneer, Robert Dean see larger image

Kevin climbs to the top of Mount Fuji for William's Fund!

Kevin Farran, the proprietor of Etcetera Restaurant in Gerrards Cross, has just completed the Mount Fuji Marathon.

On July 25th Kevin ran from the bottom to the top of Mount Fuji; a half marathon straight up… followed by a half marathon straight down!

The challenge is compounded by the extreme temperature change, 32° C at the bottom to -5° C at the top. The trail is on volcanic shale, rock and river bed and is a timed event.

Kevin finished the race with an incredible time of 3hrs 56 mins. This is amazing considering that 2,500 runners started and only 1,104 finished!

Whilst training for the run Kevin carried a running machine (helped by his son Paris) on 4 mornings, from his flat to the railway station in the centre of Gerrards Cross, where he then ran for 2 hours to publicise the event. Early morning commuters were very generous in their sponsorship. Thank you to all who have sponsored Kevin for this incredible event. See the newspaper article about this.

On his return, Kevin held a champagne reception at Etcetera where he invited everyone to guess his finish time for the run… for a small donation to William's Fund of course! The winner received a magnum of champagne.

At the reception, Kevin informed us that he had pledges of £8,000 for William's Fund!!! We are totally amazed; this means Kevin is the single biggest fundraiser for the fund (apart from the Christmas cards!) Thank you to Kevin for a splendid completion to a lot of hard training and work, we are all extremely grateful. WELL DONE!

Peter Rides London to Oxford …again!!

Sunday 6th July 2003 - Once again Peter set out from Richmond Green at 7.30am and arrived in Oxford at 11.15 am. A lovely day for the ride and £3211 raised for William's Fund, thank you to all Peter's loyal sponsors!

3 July 2003

Kevin on the spot to catch commuters' charity cash

Most people who break out in a run at a station are dashing for a train. But on Tuesday commuters were astounded to see one man running on the spot. Restaurant owner Kevin Farran dragged a treadmill to Gerrards Cross Station, in Station Approach, and started his workout in a bid to raise cash and support for charity.

Mr Farran, who owns Etcetera in Oak End Way, Gerrards Cross, will be attempting to scale Mount Fuji in Japan on July 25 in aid of William's Fund, a children's cancer charity set up in memory of a four year old boy. William Dodd, who lived in Chalfont St Peter, died of spinal cancer in December 2000. William's Fund was set up by his parents, Johanna and Peter Dodd, to raise money for the Childhood Cancer Research Fund, based at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. Mr Farran said "It was the best time to get as many people to sponsor me as possible." He is hoping to raise at least £3066 - Mount Fuji is 3066 metres high.

Mrs Dodd, who now lives in Gerrards Cross, said "It's absolutely bonkers what he's been doing, but incredible as well. We really wish him the best of luck of the actual trip." So far, William's Fund has raised nearly £138,000 towards research cots.

Sky Dive Jump

Tony Wescott, (in yellow) Managing Director of Electraweld Welding Supplies and Steve Willey, (in blue) Managing Director of SWE Architectural & Structural Steel Engineers both based in Kent, took their first sky dives for William's Fund in June 2003.

Tony and Steve teamed with a professional sky diver in a tandem jump from 12,000ft, freefalling for 7,000ft, thankfully both parachutes opened succesfully and both landed safely.

Both families were there to witness the sky dives and were as nervous as the jumpers! On landing Tony and Steve looked incredibly relaxed but high as kites! Both said that this was the most exhiliarating experience they had ever had!!

This amazing feat raised an incredible £2,730 for William's Fund, Many Thanks to you both and to your families for supporting you! What's next lads?!

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